Why You Got To Be A Bitch?

Yes, I’m going there. I’m sure normal people think I’m a bitch. Let me tell you I restrain the bitch inside me. Like this morning. I really almost had to tie her up and stuff her in a padlocked trunk. For real, y’all. I’m not sure if any of my followers are nurses but if you are then you will be like, “Yes. I know what you’re talking about, girl.”. Now, as for the rest of you, you’re probably going to be like, “What the hell is this bitch bitching about?”. Guess we’ll see.

So, as nurses you have to put up with shit from everybody. I am not exaggerating. You put up with shit from co-workers, charge nurses, doctors, administration, the government, social workers,pharmacy, respiratory therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, radiology, lab, families of patients and the patients themselves. Like I said, everybody. We get picked on, spit on, hit on, cussed, yelled at, pissed on, shit on(in more ways than one), puked on, bled on, wrote up, fired, and talked to like we are 5 years old. I’m sure there is more, but I can’t think of it now, because I just worked a 12 hour shift without a break. You would think, that all of that would gain you some sort of respect. It doesn’t.

We also have so many rules. Rules are good. Especially when you’ve got people’s lives in your hands. I understand that and respect my boundaries. I may not be the best nurse or even the most compassionate nurse, but I believe I’m a good nurse. I would never do anything to intentionally harm a patient, or anybody else as far as that goes. Yes, I can be a bit of a smart ass. I admit fully to this. It’s not a secret to anyone. I am however working in the best interest of my patients. I am their advocate. And I deserve respect. I will not be belittled by some bitch that has let her title go to her head. Well, maybe I let that happen because I need a fucking job. Maybe we all let things happen because we need a fucking job.

This morning I was so offended by this person, I don’t even know who the hell she was. You see, I float. Not just in water do I float but in my job. I go to all different kinds of floors. I meet all kinds of people. I like doing this because I don’t have to get into the drama that comes with “getting to know” people. I’m not into gossip and I don’t want to know personal things about people. I’m just fine with being oblivious to who they really are. When I hear personal things about people, and I then have to talk to them. Let’s just say it’s bad. If you tell me that this person had sex with the doctor in the bathroom on B hall. Well, that’s where my mind will go, as I’m trying to act normal, in general conversation with this person. They got a bad case of athletes foot? Yeah, well from then on that person is just “Athletics foot” from then on, to me. This is why I can’t listen to gossip. I want to stop my ears up and say “La, la, la, la, I can’t hear you, la, la, la, la!”. Yes, I’m totally childish like that. Maybe this is why I get treated as such?

Let’s get to the point. Not all floors in the hospitals have a “huddle” in the mornings and evenings before the shift starts, but a lot of them do. I hate this and think it’s a complete waste of time. You see, the people who come up with this useless shit are people who don’t have to stay on schedule. After the “huddle” they don’t have to go bust ass to get patients their meds on time. They are going to go sit on their ass and make up some more fucking rules for us “workers” to follow. I honestly think they try to make our jobs as miserable as possible. I actually worked at a hospital that you weren’t allowed to sit down all day. Except for your 30 minute break. Tell me, someone sitting in their office didn’t come up with that shit? Yeah, well, you stand up for 12 hours and then tell me to do it, fucker. I know, I know, get to the point. So, in this “huddle” which is totally not following HIPPA, by the way. We listen to the charge nurse tell us, which rooms have what procedures to have done today, who is a DNR, that means they don’t want to be recessed if they die, who has Foley catheters, if anyone is going to surgery, etc., bullshit, etc.. It’s not like we aren’t about to give the oncoming nurse a total detailed report on the patients they’re getting from us. Also, HIPPA is the privacy act to protect our patients privacy. Telling room numbers, out loud, and what procedures they are having done, is a total violation of this act. Any passerby could hear that room 301 is going for a hysterectomy and she has a catheter. I mean, really, to be so anal about the rules, you sure are breaking them. Side note here. Every time I hear the word “huddle” I want to say “hut, hut!”, like Peyton Manning. Anyway, we were in our huddle this morning and had listened to all the shit we could possibly handle when, me and the nurse beside me started to speak. Then, this fucking bitch reminded us, not politely, that the huddle was not over and that we needed to stop talking and pay attention. I wanted to punch her in the fucking throat. No lie. She was such a bitch about it. She spoke to both of us like we were children. I’ve never, well, maybe not never, but close, I’ve never quite been so offended. Not only the fact that she was a complete ass about the whole thing but the fact that she did it in front of everybody else. If you want to call me out on something, at least don’t embarrass me in front of all my co-workers. I could tell this really upset the other nurse; who works on that floor all the time. Hell, it embarrassed me and I don’t work there all the time. We, obviously, thought the huddle was over. We were so wrong! And she let us know, how wrong we were. I don’t know if this woman was the director, nurse manager or educator for this floor. I do know, however, that she was a pretentious bitch. The nurse that I got caught talking with told me that, that was the way they(management) treated them all the time. I can’t believe that anyone would rule by intimidation and fear. What are we nurses or children? You shouldn’t even really talk to or treat children that way. I mean, come on. We work our asses off to take care of the patients and get all we have to get done, done. Then you want to be a bitch to us? What the hell? Show some fucking respect, why don’t you? We hold our urine all night and get bladder infections because of it, because we put our patients needs above our own. We get our patients their third ginger ale when we are dehydrated because we haven’t had a chance to drink anything, all night. We medicate people because they are in pain and work through pain ourselves. We force ourselves to come to work sick because we don’t want our co-workers to work short. We sacrifice our holidays with our families to take care of yours. And then this is the appreciation we get in return. Tell me something isn’t wrong with that picture?

I can tell you honestly that if I didn’t have a mortgage, mouths to feed(mine and my dogs and lizard), a car payment, needing a new roof on my house and wanting a new jeep, that I would have called that bitch out right there, in front of everyone. I would have shown her the same kind of respect that she showed me and my co-worker. Why you got to be a bitch? We’re all on the same team, last I checked. I have worked for some really good supervisors in my lifetime and I know what it’s like to be one, also. I can tell you now, that the best leaders are the ones who lead by example. The ones who can do your job and who have done your job. Those are the ones you look up to. Those are the ones you respect. Those are the ones you want to do a good job for. But the ones like that bitch this morning are only good at telling people what to do. They can’t do your job but they sure don’t mind telling you how to do it.

I know you all are probably thinking that I’m being overly sensitive about all this, but I’m not. I’m tired of being treated like a child. I’m tired of being treated with no respect. I’m tired of people who can’t do my job, telling me how to do my job. Lay off bitches! Unless you want to find out what I “really do” and have to do it because we all walk out on you. This other deviant nurse that was, God forbid, talking during the huddle. She told me that they never have enough help because they couldn’t keep help. I wonder why?

Why’d I go here? Well, I’m pissed off, for one thing. I’m tired for another. I’m disgusted with it all. That’s some of it, yes. The main thing, however, is that my own mother doesn’t speak to me like that and I’ll be damned if anyone else is going to. This is not going to be the end of this story. I’m not going to let this go. I think, she owes us an apology and I think she ought to have to apologize the same way she disrespected us. In front of everybody.

My precious grandma use to say to “treat people the way you want to be treated”. I guess this woman wants everyone to treat her with contempt and disrespect. I can do that. There is a nice way to say things and there is a wrong way. She chose the latter. I am so upset about this morning that I’m probably going to either tell her straight to her face, in private. Because I feel like that is the way to handle people. Not blaring out orders at you, in front of a group of your peers. Or I’m going over her head and maybe someone with more power than her will belittle and degrade her?

For those of you in healthcare, I know that you already feel my pain. For those of you who don’t, think about it. Do nurses deserve to be treated this way? Does anybody deserve to be treated this way? How would this make you feel? What would you do? Would you forgive and forget? Or would you give that bitch a piece of your mind? Would you go over her head and let administration deal with her? I’m all ears and promise not to talk before you’re done. Unless, that fact is mistakenly overlooked. Just don’t be a bitch about it, okay.